hankyoreh

Moon Sang-ho, the former chief of South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Command, appears before the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee on Dec. 10, 2024, to answer questions about the deployment of troops to the National Assembly and National Election Commission during the illegal declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. (Yonhap)

In the nine months leading up to the declaration of martial law in December 2024, South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Command conducted atypical training drills for infiltrating North Korea, the Hankyoreh has learned.

Evidence of the training had been uncovered during a special probe investigating possible treason by former President Yoon Suk-yeol and others, led by special counsel Cho Eun-seok. Cho and his team suspected the training was conducted as part of an effort to elicit an attack from North Korea that would provide justification for Yoon’s martial law declaration, but they were reportedly unable to fully investigate the drills as they obtained related intelligence just before the end of their mandated period of investigation. 

Attention is now focused on whether the follow-up probe led by special counsel Kwon Chang-young will find that the Defense Intelligence Command (DIC) was engaging in treasonous activity. 

Kwon’s team is set to investigate remaining suspicions surrounding former Yoon: those regarding his failed martial law bid; allegations involving his wife, Kim Keon-hee; and whether he or others attempted to meddle in an investigation into a Marine’s death during a rescue operation in 2023. 

The Hankyoreh found that Cho’s special probe team confirmed the DIC conducted multiple training exercises for infiltrating North Korea between March and November 2024 — one month before martial law was declared — mobilizing personnel from a special unit known as the Headquarters Intelligence Detachment (HID). 

Kwon Chang-young, the special counsel assigned to complete a follow-up investigation into allegations raised during a series of special probes into alleged malfeasance by Yoon Suk-yeol and those in his orbit, gives his first briefing at his team’s office in Gwacheon on Feb. 25, 2026. (Ryu Woo-jong/Hankyoreh)

Training involved methods such as using submarines and powered paragliders. Investigators noted that these exercises were different from standard HID training sessions. Notably, former DIC Commander Moon Sang-ho personally oversaw the HID's infiltration training. The probe also uncovered that around one month before martial law was declared, when the paraglider infiltration training kept failing due to weather conditions, Moon reprimanded the personnel in charge, exclaiming, “Why haven't you succeeded yet?”

However, as Cho’s team obtained this information just a month before its fixed term of investigation was set to expire, it was unable to confirm whether the training was conducted simply to strengthen national defense capabilities or to secure justification for declaring martial law. 

Nevertheless, Cho and his team concluded that former Yoon and Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, among others, carried out an operation to fly drones into Pyongyang as part of a bid to create a justification for the declaration of martial law and took them to trial on charges of general treason. The general treason statute stipulates punishment for those who harm the military interests of the Republic of Korea or provide military benefits to enemy nations.

It is now up to Kwon and his team to investigate these allegations. The bill mandating Kwon’s special counsel investigation includes the DIC's alleged submersible infiltration attempt among the allegations to be investigated. The bill mandates an investigation of alleged treason aimed at inducing an attack from North Korea leading to war or armed conflict, including those related to flying armed helicopters near the Northern Limit Line and submersible infiltration into North Korean waters. 

Last November, Rep. Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party stated in a radio interview following a closed-door National Assembly Intelligence Committee audit that the DIC's HID unit actually prepared lethal weapons such as explosives and submersibles the day before martial law was declared, with the purpose of provoking North Korea.

By Kang Jae-gu, staff reporter

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